Apple recently sent out invites for its September 12 event where it will announce three new iPhones and a host of upgrades to its existing products. Keeping the excitement of the new iPhones aside, products like an LTE enabled Apple Watch, 4K supported Apple TV will also be launched during the event.

Without a doubt, the most anticipated launch is that of the iPhone 8. There have been a lot of rumours and leaks about the upcoming flagship iPhone, let’s take a look at what we know about it so far

Display

The most talked-about feature of the upcoming iPhone 8 is its bezel less display. Ever since the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ with the infinity display, rumours have suggested a 5.8 inch bezel-less display on the next iPhone. Apple is also said to finally be using OLED panels, and rumours suggest that the iPhone 8 will feature a curved OLED display which will pit it against the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+’s display. A new iOS 11 GM leak suggests that tThe display of the device may feature True Tone support like the iPad Pro.

Design

One of the most noticeable deviations for the iPhone 8 from the previous gen iPhones is going to its design. The smartphone will reportedly sport a “glass sandwich” design to support wireless charging. The phone will have a metal frame and very thin bezels with a notch on top to house the front camera, 3D sensors and other along with all the other necessary sensors. The lock button was reported to be larger this time around, mainly due to a fingerprint sensor housed in it but, these reports seem to have been deemed false. The headphone jack will still be dearly missed although, it may not seem that out of order or radical this time around.

Price

Multiple reports have confirmed that the new iPhone will break the US 1000 price barrier and cost USD 999 for the base 64GB variant. The other two variants will be the 256GB variant for USD 1099 and the 512GB variant for USD 1199. This bumped up storage is reportedly due to the phone’s 4K ay 60 FPS video taking capabilities through the front and back camera. Apple will also market the phone for AR functionalities and the apps to support that won’t be light on the storage, hence, the increased storage space makes sense. The price, on the other hand, will take a while to get used to.

Security

Ever since the iPhone 5S, TouchID has been a staple for all Apple mobile devices and has become the main security feature to access your Apple Account as well. According to the HomePod firmware leak, the new iPhone 8 will not feature a fingerprint sensor and instead will be replaced by a facial recognition system dubbed as ‘FaceID’. These rumours gained impedance when the 3D sensing modules of the iPhone 8 were leaked.

The lack of bezels forced Apple to replace the home button and after the initial reports of a virtual home button, it seems like the iPhone 8 will come without a physical or virtual home button and instead use gestures for navigation. A new iOS 11 GM leak has revealed that the iPhone 8 will have gesture support. Pulling upwards on the bar brings up the Home screen and a longer pull brings up the App Switcher.

iPhone 8 3D Sensing Module

Camera

Interestingly, not a lot has been revealed about the iPhone 8’s cameras, except that this time around the dual cameras will be vertically placed. The HomePod firmware also revealed that the rear front facing cameras will record 4K videos at 60 FPS. According to Korea Economic Daily, Apple is working on facial recognition technology leveraging the cameras for “biometric” identification. Like Touch ID — but with your face instead of your thumbprint. In addition to that, a leaked patent application spills out the details of a sensor that will tell you if you’re human or not. This is Apple’s effort towards developing a rear-facing 3D laser system that would improve AR depth detection as well autofocus for photography. The phone will support Apple’s new HVEC file type, which reduces the file size by a significant amount. This makes sense because 4K videos generally have large file sizes and HVEC can reduce the size by almost 50 per cent resulting in better storage management. The same iOS 11 GM leak has revealed new video recording options

New Colour?

The Rose Gold colour variant on the iPhone 6S back in 2015 was a trendsetter and how. Apple led the charge in experimenting with its flagship device’s colour variants and a lot of companies followed suit. But the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus might be the last ones to sport the swanky Rose Gold colour as KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple might drop the colour variant for the upcoming iPhone 8. Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been a reliable source of Apple news suggests that the new iPhone will only arrive in Black, Silver and Copper Gold. The new Copper Gold Colour may be called “Blush Gold.”

Under The Hood

Apple will introduce the new A11 Fusion chipset at the September 12 event. All the three new iPhones will have the A11 Fusion chipset which will like every chipset upgrade, be more power efficient and faster than the previous generations. The iPhone 8 will have 4GB RAM and as discussed earlier, come in three storage variants, 64GB, 256GB and 512GB. The battery

Apple A11 Geekbench4,?4600,8500 and 4300,7000?This is two different clock frequencies, and the final result may be between the two

Wireless Charging

Apple’s decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and not introduce wireless charging was heavily panned in 2016. Things in 2017 though, are looking much better for iPhone fans as new leaks suggest that the iPhone 8 will definitely feature wireless charging.

The images show the purported component that will enable wireless charging on all of Apple’s next-generation iPhones. The part will be placed on the back of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s, right under the rear glass shell. It has been already reported that the iPhone lineup will have a “glass sandwich” design, which means glass front and back. This news further legitimises the HomePod firmware leak which suggested that wireless charging support will be built into iOS. Having an all glass design allows manufacturers to add wireless charging capabilities even though it’s not as durable as having an all metal design.

What’s It Going To Be Called?

The new iPhone was touted as the iPhone 8 and the other two devices as the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus, going by Apple’s history. A recent report however, has revealed that the marquee device will be called the iPhone X, as it is the 10th anniversary iPhone or the iPhone Edition. The other two variants will then be named iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. The Apple invite for the event doesn’t give anything away and in fact does not even hint towards an iPhone launch, unlike a lot of other recent flagship launch invites like the Samsung Galaxy Note8 or Huawei Mate 10.